So I was introduced to this game called Chat Fu on Facebook. The goal of the game is to get your friends to say certain words in a Facebook chat without saying the word or similar words. It’s the game of social deception. I wanted to try out the game myself and what better way to do that than by interviewing Alex Hayter, the Marketing and PR Manager for Blot Interactive, in a Facebook chat? I have highlighted the words that I was trying to get him to say during our interview.

BAND

TT: Would you say that the dev team is a solid thing of brothers… hmm whats the term?

AH: Je ne sais quoi. Brothers as in dudes? ‘Cause there’s at least one lady on the team.

Well like you know, You guys all work together. Like soldiers. It’s almost as if you guys have become a solid collective of brothers. Like, some type of tight-knit thing.

Then yeah, ha. It’s a very solid group of people. We’ve totally bonded in the short amount of time that Blot has been around. Definitely one of the most fun groups of people I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

That’s awesome. If you could compare your team to any type of musical group what would it be?

Hmm… I’d have to say Fleetwood Mac. It’s an ensemble group full of talent where everyone brings their own abilities – and gets their own chance to shine in the spotlight.

Hmm. Fleetwood Mac? What are they?

Only the best band of all time.

Aw YISS!!

Oh man. Are you playing against me still? LOL. I thought you were just chatting.

What Ricky probably looks like in the Chat Fu universe.

SET UP

TT: How long was the development cycle?

AH: Less than a year actually. I believe development was started last Fall.

Where did the initial idea come from? Who SET such a thing UP?

Well the initial idea was Justin Kwok’s, who is our creative director. The game’s really inspired by board games like Taboo.

Was the idea prototyped on a board? Or non-digital in any way? How was it up set? Ah dang I think I got that wrong…what was the phrase I was looking for there?

It was built in Unity… I don’t think it was prototyped so much as established in early mock-up designs by Justin and the artists at Blot Interactive. It was a pretty straight-forward setup, as the team has a lot of experience with game development!…did i get it?

Setup? … I uh… I think you misspelled that.

Set-up

Hmm don’t think that’s right either. I’m no dictionary though. I don’t think set and up play well together. [wink wink nudge nudge]

Aaarrgh! I’m so confused and this is probably obvious.

Two words!! Hahaha!

SET UP!

AW YISS!!

Take that, scoundrel!

CALL OF DUTY

TT: So Blot Interactive is fairly new, but created from people with dev experience. Was the company formed along with the idea of Chat Fu? Or was it developed after the company was formed?

AH: The company was formed with a ton of game ideas in mind – so Chat Fu is really just the start of a whole swarm of awesome stuff to play with. But Chat Fu was the initial idea that got Blot Interactive off the ground and running.

So will it be a yearly franchise? Like Activision games?…You know the one right?

Haha, well I won’t say we’re planning on going the route of Call of Duty with endless sequels. There’s definitely an audience for that, but Blot’s about creating innovative game experiences for everyone. Especially people who don’t even know they’re gamers yet. That’s really what Chat Fu captures, I think – it’s definitely a game, but people who don’t consider themselves gamers – not even casual gamers – are going to want to play it.

Nailed it! Haha. Final question. What can we expect in the future from Blot?

Like I said, we make games for people who don’t know they’re gamers yet. But I also think traditional gamers will get a real kick out of the fun stuff we’re making, like Chat Fu and beyond. I can’t talk about our future projects yet, but it’s safe to say that we’re excited to be working on both current and next-gen platforms, with totally new IPs that are going to melt people’s faces off.